Kitana Khan
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: The passage of time had been reset twice. However, while that allowed for changes in the flow of time, there were some constants. The strong would always prey on the weak...and call it justice.


_A/N_

_I'll specify ahead of time that this is a case of me taking significant liabilities with canon. Basically a case of me seeing the ending of _Mortal Kombat 11 _and Kitana's arcade mode ending and kind of amalgamating the two into an idea. Not one that's likely to happen in MK12 (assuming there is one), but an idea I chose to play around with. _

* * *

**Kitana Khan**

_So this is Earthrealm, _Kitana thought to herself. _I expected more._

She supposed she shouldn't judge an entire realm just by the first piece of land she arrived in, but still, first impressions counted for a lot, in Edenia and Outworld both. Those realms, and all the others within her empire. Earthrealm was said to be the jewel of creation. The centrepiece in the crown named the cosmos. And in a sense, it was. Its blue skies, its white clouds, the whispers of the wind, and the sound of birds. Earthrealm was far more Edenia than Outworld, at least in the superficial sense. But yet also, it was not. The temple that she and her entourage walked towards, while grand, was nothing compared to the edifices that dotted her empire. And the people that milled around it, while similar to outworlders and edenians in appearance, were not the same in strength. They were a race with short lives, who succumbed readily to both blade and disease. She could only speculate how such sickly creatures had managed to survive this long, to create structures as grand as the so-called Temple of Light. No doubt many had perished in its construction.

She led her entourage to the base of the temple. Men lay ahead, while women and children dotted both sides of the road. The women glanced at the empress, as well as her entourage – edenians, outworlders, and tarkatans, all marching under the banner of her empire. The children hid behind their dresses. Kitana tried to catch their eyes, but they shied away from her in fear. Her heart beat as she yearned to hug them, to tell them that it would be alright. Earthrealm would join the worlds under her protection. They wouldn't have to live in a world where their lives were measured in mere decades. They wouldn't have to grow up like their parents, with hunched backs, faces scarred by pox, and teeth broken or missing. They would not have to grow up as men, such as the line of warriors that awaited her. Men clad in armour and bearing spear and shield. Men who refused to part, even as she led the entourage towards them, and by extension, the temple.

"Hail, warriors of Earthrealm," she said.

The warriors offered no hail in return. They stood there, faces hidden behind their helms, but failing to hide the sparks of fear within their eyes.

"Do you know who I am?"

None answered. She watched as some of their number glanced at her entourage, the tarkatans most of all. They had to understand that if they fought, they would die, and not even she could kept a tarkatan horde in check once they had tasted blood.

"I am Kitana Khan," she said. "Queen of Edenia, Emperor of Outworld, and Protector of the Realms. I would bid I speak with your protector, so that what transpires this day is to all our benefit."

"All?" one of the guards murmured. "Or yours?"

She ignored him and looked towards the heavens. "Where are you, Lord Raiden?" she asked. "Where is Earthrealm's protector? Where is the God of Thunder and Lightning?"

There was no answer. Not to her, nor to the warriors of the temple who glanced upward, awaiting their saviour. The sky remained clear, the sun bright, and the clouds large. The birds continued to sing, and the breeze continued its tune.

"Your god is not here," Kitana asked. "Is he that afraid?"

"Perhaps he does not wish to speak to conquerors."

Kitana laughed at the guard who dared speak once more. "You have a strong spirit," she said. She looked back up at the heavens again. "Are you there, Lord Raiden? Do you cower behind the sons and daughters of Earth? Do you-"

There was a crash of lightning that hit the ground. The guards scattered, and even those in her entourage could not hide their fear, stumbling aside, or bearing their blades. If it came to battle, they could cut through the humans with ease. But for the one who stood before them, the Thunder God…he could kill them with but a flick of his fingers. As such, it was only Kitana who stood unfazed. Only Kitana Khan, the Empress, the Benefactor of Creation, stood proud enough to greet a god.

"This is the third time I have known you," Raiden murmured. He looked at Kitana, his eyes sparkling, hinting at the storm behind them. "A tragedy for all that it has come to that."

"A tragedy," Kitana mocked. "You jest, Lord Raiden."

"I do not, Kitana, the one who is edenian by birth, but outworlder by nature. The one who follows in her father's footsteps and cannot see that she walks the same path."

Kitana scowled, and glanced back at the cobblestones that had led her to the temple's base. "I walked a short path to this temple Lord Raiden." She looked back at him. "It is short, and broken. Just like the people who built it."

"And yet you are here."

"I am," she said.

Raiden said nothing. He just stood there, his face unreadable. But she could imagine what he was thinking.

The Sands of Time. The Hourglass. Timelines gone, and timelines lost. Perhaps he was thinking of her adoptive father, Shao Khan, who carved a bloody swathe throughout Creation before finally being stopped. Perhaps he was thinking of her, taken by Quan Chi, pressed into the service of darkness. Perhaps, she reflected, he was looking at her now, and thinking of what she had been in the past, and not who she was now. One who brought order and civilization to the corners of Creation. One who ruled with a just hand. One who was not Shao Khan, but Kitana Khan – the empress Creation deserved.

"State your intentions, Kitana Khan," Raiden said.

"Tire of the charade already Raiden?" she asked.

"I commit no charade, but I look upon yours with dismay."

Kitana scowled, but nevertheless kept her composure. "Very well." She took a few steps up to Raiden. The guards made way for her, and within moments, both god and empress were within striking distance. "Lord Raiden, I lay claim to Earthrealm. Its riches will benefit the empire I have forged, and its people will prosper under my reign."

"Will they now?" Raiden asked.

"I have united the races of Creation. I have united their realms. What do your children do here, Raiden, other than wait for death to take them?" She nodded to the women and children that lined the path. "Imagine it Raiden – a world where children wouldn't hide behind their mothers' dresses. Where they could grow, live as long as edenians even. If Earthrealm is the jewel of Creation, let it sit in its crown. Let me help it, as I have helped so many others."

The thunder god smirked, glancing from one side to the other, as if gazing at lands unknown, unseen. "Even if I bent the knee," he murmured, "how many sons and daughters of Earth would do likewise?"

"It is irrelevant. They will bend the knee once you do."

"I speak for Earthrealm. I cannot speak for all its inhabitants."

"Then if they act like children, unable to come together, then that is all the more reason to guide them to glory," Kitana said.

Raiden returned his gaze to her, no longer smiling. Sorrow, instead, was etched upon his features.

"Glory," he murmured. "Many before you have spoken of glory."

"Lord Raiden-"

"Men and women who speak of glory, who reach for Heaven, must often climb mountains of skulls to do so."

"Lord Raiden, I am not Shao Khan."

"No. You are not. Which breaks my heart ever further, Kitana Khan, to see that you walk the same path."

"The same path? That is absurd."

"Then all is at peace within your empire? Everyone sings the praises of Kitana Khan, and considers themselves blessed by her protection? No-one has ever resisted your armies? None have ever sought freedom?"

"Fools and madmen have," Kitana said. "What of it?"

Raiden sighed. "I have been Earthrealm's protector for aeons," he said. "I have seen a hundred empires rise and fall, and I will see a thousand more do the same before the last star burns out. All of them were founded by great men and women, and all ended the same way – dust in the book of history."

"Then it is just as well that as one who is immortal, the book of history is within my hands, and my bones shall never be dust."

"Perhaps. Did your father say the same thing?"

Kitana sighed. She glanced at the temple's soldiers. Its women and children. She was tempted, oh so tempted, to let her warriors loose and butcher them where they stood. Kill a hundred, save a thousand. It was a philosophy that had ensured peace and prosperity for millennia. It was proof that she was not Shao Khan, for he would have just killed the thousand and be done with it. Yet Raiden, that obstinate fool, refused to see it.

"You won't bend the knee?" Kitana murmured, returning her gaze to the thunder god. "Will you?"

"No," Raiden said. "For my honour, and for the lives of all within this world, I will not let you raise your banner on Earth."

"Very well," Kitana said. "Then by the right of my crown, and the edicts of the Elder Gods, I invoke the ancient rite of Mortal Kombat."

Raiden said nothing. He just stood there, in silence, as old and immovable as a mountain.

"In one year's time, we will have the first tournament," Kitana said. "Then, for each of the nine generations afterwards, the tournament will be held once more. Then, at last, Earthrealm will be incorporated into the empire, and your name will be cursed a hundred generations later, as the one who caused unnecessary bloodshed."

"If you are so certain in victory," Raiden murmured, "then one must ask who is shedding the blood?"

"This is my challenge," Kitana said. "You cannot refuse it. You must either accept my challenge, or accept my rule. You will choose whether Earthrealm joins the empire today, or ten generations from now."

Raiden gave her a sad smile. "So the path is walked once more," he said. "We so often try to change time, but we always end up here."

"Pretty words, God of Thunder. But where we end up will be a place greater than what has come in any world, any timeline before."

"Perhaps." He lowered his head, and put his hands together. "Elder Gods, hear me. I, Raiden, God of Thunder, Protector of Earthrealm, accept Kitana Khan's challenge of Mortal Kombat."

Thunder crashed in the sky, but it was not of his doing. The skies were darkening. The birds had fallen silent, and the wind now cut through even Kitana like ice through flesh.

"Know that one year from now, the first Mortal Kombat tournament will be held. By right of victory, if the Edenian-Outworld Empire achieves ten straight victories, Earthrealm will be absorbed into their domains."

Kitana remained silent – if Raiden wanted to drag this out, fine. She was over nine-thousand years old. She could wait ten generations.

Raiden looked at her. "Your oath is awaited."

Of course it was, she reflected. She extended her hand, and took Raiden's, looking up at the sky. "I, Kitana Khan, Empress of Outworld and Edenia, have invoked the rite of Mortal Kombat. Know that my claim to Earthrealm is as long as the tournament itself. Know that if Earthrealm achieves ten straight victories, my claim to this realm is forever forfeit." She returned her gaze to Raiden. "It is done."

He bowed. "It is done."

Kitana scoffed and returned to her entourage, signalling them to begin marching back to the portal that had brought them here. However, she lingered, casting one last look at Raiden, and the mortals who surrounded him, one of which was no doubt already yearning to volunteer as tribute.

"You will remember this day, Lord Raiden," she said. "Ten generations from now, when my banner flies over this place, when the people of Earthrealm praise my name and curse yours, you will remember this moment."

"Perhaps," he said. He was smiling. "But ones before you have said that as well. And if the Sands of Time have taught me anything, it's that history has a way of repeating itself. And that includes daughters, who try so hard to distance themselves from their fathers, that they cannot see the path which they tread."

Kitana scowled. "Clear the lightning from your eyes, Raiden. You might see that your own path can only lead you so far."

And with that, she turned away from the thunder god, and those who served him. Away from those who had been forced to be her enemy. Against a madman who dared compare her to Shao Khan, in all his brutality.

After all, she was nothing like him.


End file.
